


CITIES & MEMORY 5

by pasteur



Category: Le città invisibili | Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-08
Updated: 2013-07-08
Packaged: 2017-12-18 02:18:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/874546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pasteur/pseuds/pasteur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The life of art is the life of a man; the story of art is the story of a city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	CITIES & MEMORY 5

Kublai Khan brought before the court a magnificent painting, a spectacle wrought in egg and pigment, filigree and silk. Depicted was an elephant resplendent in its golden robes, trunk held high, tusks tipped with mother-of-pearl. Pleased, he asked his Venetian, “From where does such work derive? What city’s artisans hold such fine command?"

Marco Polo replied, “One city alone could not have drawn this well. The painting was made in the finest galleys of Fiara, where artists practice their craft from dusk to dawn, and the sun stays hidden to escape comparison to their glory.

"But the command for the piece came from far Freya. It was in honor of the celebration of their beloved twin princes – one a princess. It is the custom in Freya to witness every inauguration with an artefact that tells the story of its rulers, in a metaphor that will only be clear as the years go by. In such a way each leader sees the future, and must only allow Freya and the world to come into its place.

"But further still is found the subject. The elephants of Fiona know well the way they capture the eye of any man who sees them, from the blind handlers that raise them in their youth, to the mirrored cages in which they travel. But the beasts, no matter how charged with awe, never know their true weight until the horns ring out and drums begin to beat. For, you see, the beasts of Fiona are meant for war, and once the mighty witness war, they can never remember anything else."


End file.
